The early works of Edgar Rice Burroughs are a must read. Especially the first few books in each of the Tarzan, Barsoon and Pellucidar series. His writing tends to get a bit formulaic, but his creativity overshadows that little flaw. After all, he was writing them at a fast pace.

His fellow Pulp author, Lester Dent (under house name Kenneth Robeson) used a formula of his own for his Doc Savage stories and wrote some real goodies too. The Man of Bronze is an amazing pulp novel, its the first Doc Savage story ever published.

While Burroughs and Dent were great, I have to admit I believe Paul Ernst was probably the best Pulp writer of that period. He wrote the Avenger stories under the Kenneth Robeson house name. The Avenger is kind of a hybrid between Doc Savage and the Shadow and the writers of both heroes (Lester Dent and Walter Gibson) had input in the creation of the Avenger.

Besides the classic works of ERB and the hero pulps I am a big fan of Weird Tales. You can't go wrong with Robert E. Howard's original Conan, Solomon Kane and Kull stories. Del Rey put out really nice collections a while back of them, the way they were originally published in Weird Tales. They are fantastic. Another author I have started to read is C.L. Moore. Her stories are quite good, she came onto the scene later than the Weird Tales Golden Age (when Howard, HP Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith were writing) but her stories are still entertaining.

I'm also a big fan of Howard and his writing style. I recently got to visit his home, and the local library there is selling photocopies of some of his original manuscripts! It's pretty amazing. I'll have to post a blog about that.

I think my favorite stuff so far has actually been ERB's Tarzan series. It's savage and brutal, even more violent than Conan. I was really surprised with how dark and epic the first book was, and by the way the second book is so closely tied to Tarzan of the Apes that it might as well be a two-part novel. And I really enjoyed the pulpy adventure in the later books like Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar. I feel like even Conan would raise an eyebrow at Tarzan's barbaric and savage attitude. It's pretty nuts.

I have all the Doc Savage novels but I haven't gotten to them yet. I will definitely have to break out The Man of Bronze and give it a read!

I frequently hit the "old and interesting" section of Half Price Books and scour the $1-$3 paperbacks. I've walked out of there with stacks of Conan books, trashy barbarian novels, bubble helmet sci-fi novels and old classic science fiction from Heinlein, Herbert, Asimov, Clark, Zelazny, etc. Great stuff.

_________________Stacy Davidson

“Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.” ― Tom Stoppard, Artist Descending a Staircase

I agree, the first two Tarzan novels should be read back to back, as they are basically two parts of the same story. Just as the first three Barsoom books should be read straight through, as its one big story. I am also enjoying "the Jungle Tales of Tarzan" which focuses on Tarzan growing up with the Mangani. I have heard some people begin reading "Jungle Tales" at a certain point in "Tarzan of the Apes", it fits in there chronologically, but I have yet to try it.

I agree, Tarzan was Conan's literary forefather and was a brutal ape man. Conan may have been a savage, but he was still raised a human. It is interesting to see the differences and similiarities between the two noble savages.

I envy you for getting to visit Cross Plains, TX. I'd love to visit there someday and see the Howard Museum. If you ever get a chance, the Solomon Kane stories are just as good as his Conan yarns. He didn't write nearly as many, but each is very enjoyable.

Yes! Jungle Tales is one of my favorites. The jungle stuff goes by so fast in the original novels. It's fun to have an excuse to go back and live out more adventure in Tarzan's early years!

Interestingly, the lady who was our guide at the REH museum was primarily a fan of his western stories and Solomon Kane. And today I just noticed a Solomon Kane movie on the horizon?? I somehow totally missed this!

_________________Stacy Davidson

“Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.” ― Tom Stoppard, Artist Descending a Staircase

Yeah the Solomon Kane movie was released in the UK, but hasn't made its way to US shores yet. It stars James Purefoy as Kane, so I am looking forward to seeing it. From the trailer I see he fights this large elemental of some kind, so I don't think they stayed true to Howard's work, but am still curious about it.

I liked how the most recent Conan movie dropped in some easter eggs referencing Howard's stories, but overall that movie wasn't very good. It would have been a decent barbarian/sword and sorcery movie, but it wasn't a good Conan movie.

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